Best New SSB Radio Under $200?

[jazzsinger]

I don't think buying an S-9 would be "going all out".

buying an s9 is all out madness, for that price you could pick up a decent 2nd hand ts50 or 706, the s9 offers nothing useful over much cheaper export radios,except bling and controls that do precious little. wtf do you need two mic sockets for? one for each personality of the schizo that buys one?


i'm certain Robb will come up with a sound reason for having two mic sockets, i'm sure Sam will let him know.

 

[74IN]

How bout a good old 148 or Uniden Grant. I was like you at one time but I have decided to go with the older stuff. Workin on a 148 Malaysian made I just got right now. Then again I am kinda old school I guess. I do understand wanting something new so do I but I think I am gonna stick with the older stuff.

Good advice, just make it a Grant XL, not a Grant.



The Grant is very different than the XL.

A Grant.

Very hard to beat the RX of an old Grant XL/Cobra 148 or the audio on TX.

Both were made by Uniden, just different names.

One of the most modifiable CB's ever.

 

[Robb]

i'm certain Robb will come up with a sound reason for having two mic sockets, i'm sure Sam will let him know.

Haha!
Pretty funny!

I never thought much of the S-9. But having two mic sockets is OK. Using the 6 pin socket or rewiring a mic for it is risky to the radio due to the voltage on the pin for the preamp in their stock power mic.

Having a second 4 pin socket wired up for the standard Cobra, Connex, Galaxy, and etc - makes it easy to plug a mic so wired. Look at it as a convenience.

Still would pick a 257HP over the 3900 any day.

Haven't talked to Sam in a year. As you know, I don't do reviews any more.

 

[jazzsinger]

Haha!
Pretty funny!

I never thought much of the S-9. But having two mic sockets is OK. Using the 6 pin socket or rewiring a mic for it is risky to the radio due to the voltage on the pin for the preamp in their stock power mic.

Having a second 4 pin socket wired up for the standard Cobra, Connex, Galaxy, and etc - makes it easy to plug a mic so wired. Look at it as a convenience.

Still would pick a 257HP over the 3900 any day.

Haven't talked to Sam in a year. As you know, I don't do reviews any more.

Sorry mate, couldn't resist it. anyway what's happening to you in old age Robb, the wheels on your zimmer getting rusty or something, it took you nearly 10 minutes to answer me, in the good old review days i had barely hit submit reply when you were submitting your plea of innocence, lol.

Anyway its good to see Sam didn't manage to convince you the S9 was a sound investment, the 257hp i'll hold my judgement on till i get a chance to use one, hope its better than previous 257's though. that non continuous tuning is a pain in the rectum.

i hate to say this, but anyone dumb enough not to check 5 or 6 pin mic sockets for a live pin before they try to wire a mic to it probably deserve what happens, its not like live pins are a new invention. if people are too retarded to learn how to wire mic's properly with a multimeter which avoids all the risks you mention or if they are too lazy and use some other halfwits wiring guide they found on the net (the net, yeah, the place where all advice is accurate,pmsl) it's very hard to feel sympathy for them.

especially for anyone who falls in any of the catagories i mentioned, here's a link to a site where a very kind man called Lou Franklin, took the time to write down exactly how to learn to wire mic's properly for you:
MIKE WIRING GUIDE

Sorry to hear you ain't talking to Sam anymore, i miss your unbiased repitition of what he told you about how immensely excellent his products are.

257 over a 3900, wouldn't be my choice, but then my best mate don't make em.:laugh: i'll give the 257 one thing though, it is dinky, and in modern cars, mounting a 257 will be much easier than a contemporary sized 3900, but homebase use, for me the 3900 wins every time, mainly because it hasn't got all that expensive display/microprocessor shit to go faulty. a radio thats basic, simple to repair, cheap to repair and on the whole very reliable through time, will always get my vote.

 

[AndrewGS]

I don't think buying an S-9 would be "going all out".

What would be your "all out" radio?

I have heard nothing but good things about the S-9 family, but then I haven't really been into CBin' in like 12 years. My last radio, besides my current throw-down Cobra 29 freebie, was a 2510 that I bought new and regret selling.

I've always wanted me a "big radio" in the classic chrome and analog meter style, and the S-9 certainly fits that bill.

If I was buying a sideband radio in the US today it would be the Ranger rci3900hp, sure they will drift on warm up (is there any export that doesn't) but they tend to be very reliable once tuned up, the other i would go for is the 3900 eghp, but i've already got that one and i think the black face of the 3900hp looks better than the ultra-bling of the 3900 eghp, chrome radios mark too easily. :thumbdown:

I must admit the fact the 3900hp hasn't got those faggot blue led's on it helped sway my choice. one less job i'd have to do changing that putrid blue display.

I don't know, it looks nice and simple, but a 10-meter radio without a freq. counter seems useless to me.

As for the blue, I prefer white LEDs, but I'll take blue over red, amber or green any day.

buying an s9 is all out madness, for that price you could pick up a decent 2nd hand ts50 or 706, the s9 offers nothing useful over much cheaper export radios,except bling and controls that do precious little. wtf do you need two mic sockets for? one for each personality of the schizo that buys one?


i'm certain Robb will come up with a sound reason for having two mic sockets, i'm sure Sam will let him know.

A 706 would be way too much radio to play CB. Besides, doesn't the AM kinda suck in modern HF rigs?

 

[jazzsinger]

I don't know, it looks nice and simple, but a 10-meter radio without a freq. counter seems useless to me.

As for the blue, I prefer white LEDs, but I'll take blue over red, amber or green any day.

it has an optional counter socket on the back,which reads tx and rx, and is reasonably accurate to 6 digits.

Galaxy FC347-B, 6 Digit Frequency Counter, BLUE LED NEW | eBay

SUPERSTAR 3900 FREQUENCY COUNTER BLUE DISPLAY CB RADIO | eBay

Frequency Counter CB Ham HF .5-50 mHz external ATV RV | eBay

A 706 would be way too much radio to play CB. Besides, doesn't the AM kinda suck in modern HF rigs?

AM (antiquated modulation) sucks period.:thumbdown::thumbdown: It's a SSB world.

playing cb on a 706 is fun.

 

[mackmobile43]

A frequency counter/indicator is really useless in the 11 meter band due to the fact we're not allowed to stray from the presets already in the radio.

All you really need is a channel indicator and a clarifier but if you just like to tell people how far off frequency they are then go with jazz's suggestion.

Hey George isn't AM on the 706 the "ain't modulating" mode?

 

[len sandora]

So since your recommending the 966...How long have you had yours? Where did you buy it, and would you recommend them? Did you have any Mods done to yours?

Does it drift on the SSB much?

Bet it's a bitch keeping finger prints off it.

texas ranger has the tr966good on ssb,and the tre966ffc which is a heavy drifter and even after warm-up you have to play with the clarifier.
tr966 I had 1 it is good much better than 949 959 on ssb also.

 

[BammBamm]

Just my thoughts.You could go with a dx-959 and do the channel mod along with an external counter if it's going to be used as a base, but then again by the time your done you will have spent as much as buying the Magnum257hp or the RCI2950dx. My vote is a Magnum 257hp.

 

[Grogan]

The post if from Sept. 2011 and have not seen this person on the forum. I would think he bought and sold the radio long ago.

 

[Grogan]

And to answer the question

op: Well the Galaxy DX-979 With open Clarifier (optional) Tune and aligned under 200.00 Plus inflation (when the first post on this thread was started) would about 208.00 Results Best ready to through the switch on in 2013 yes the DX-979 Buy one! this is not a prof. opinion. :tongue:

 

[Onelasttime]

Well if it has to be FCC type accepted CB radio then the 949,959,979 are going to be the best way to go because none of the other current new production FCC approved SSB rigs are worth owning. Most of the Galaxy SSB drift on warm up can be improved and made less of a pain with a long life weat lamp hot glued to the crystalfilter. That said they are going to be better built then all the other modern SSB FCC aproved CB radios.

I would up my limit to under $270 and get a RCI2950DX. I had a first and second generation RCI one for a few years the other for 15 years including college. Back then I had the gear to do a proper alignment on it every year but truth be told only once did I find it out of spec. and latter on I found out my stock voltage regulator was going bad and the fluctuating power was causing the SSB to drift. It was rock solid. So if SSB is your thing and you also want pretty darn good AM audio the 2950DX is the way to go. On top of that you will get to skip upgrading radios every 2-3 years and upgrading exports every 4-5 years. You will not need to add channels to it ever! That alone saves a lot of money long term. If you want to add power a year or two latter you have the RFX150 add on linear that is chassis mount and variable from the face of the radio with the stock RF power control knob. Not enough then get the Magnum 350 cover mounted linear basically 2 of the RFX 150 combined with a larger heat sink.

No need to unlock the clarifier either because you can just put the carrot/cursor where you want it an adjust it up and down that way so your transmit and receive track 1:1 with far greater accuracy then you have with an unlocked clairfier.

If it had not been stolen from me I would still be on it. Since I spend 3X as much time on SSB then on AM the radio I got to replace my 2950 was a President Lincoln. She is not as fantastic as my RCI2950 was but she is no slouch and is a fantastic SSB rig. SHe is also much more compact.

Space to mount it in a vechile is one thing to look at and power needs are another. I would never get some huge 250-400 watt mobile to use as my base due to power supply needs to feed such a beast. In a car though I would not be bother with that since modern cars and trucks normaly have more then enough power when running to feed anything 500 watts and under with ease.

The reason so many people like vintage radio is because they had fantastic AM and SSB audio and stability. Most where easy to get extra illegal freq.'s for a long time with no need for anything too fancy. Most of the older rigs where durable so long as they where not in a tractor trailer where vibration kills everything in time.

If the rig is 15-25 years old and has been sitting a lot it more then likely needs to be re-caped for the best performance and might need obsolete hard to find ic's and transistors.

This was for the next guys benefit with the same question or similar question.

 

[giboni]

If I was buying a sideband radio in the US today it would be the Ranger rci3900hp, sure they will drift on warm up (is there any export that doesn't) but they tend to be very reliable once tuned up, the other i would go for is the 3900 eghp, but i've already got that one and i think the black face of the 3900hp looks better than the ultra-bling of the 3900 eghp, chrome radios mark too easily. :thumbdown:

I must admit the fact the 3900hp hasn't got those faggot blue led's on it helped sway my choice. one less job i'd have to do changing that putrid blue display.

 

[giboni]

Hoiw about a used CPI 400 Mobile..........

 

[Rick330man]

After about 15 years of not buying new radios, I bit the bullet and purchased a Uniden Bearcat 980 about 3 months ago. I liked it enough that I bought a 2nd one a month later. I still use my 30+ year old Realistic Navaho TRC490 base and my 30+ year old Johnson Viking 4740, but the 980 Bearcats perform very well. And for the money...can't beat them.